Nikon D40 Digital SLR Camera

It was a good little point and shoot camera but today I retired my Sony DSC-W5 digital camera. Taking its place is the highly recommended Nikon D40. I was reading Josh Bancroft’s Tinyscreenfuls blog post about the D40 and it inspired me to take the plunge into the DSLR world of photography. After reading the reviews I was convinced that the D40 was the best choice. I opted for the 6.1 megapixal version of the camera verses the 10.2 MP D40x after reading this review.

I realized I have no practical reason for the 10 MP version of the D40. Taking pictures at 10 MP is overkill for most scenarios and you are likely to do a lot of cropping. More importantly pictures which have been cropped from 10 MP don’t look nearly as good as photos taken at 6 MP that hasn’t been cropped. Don’t be fooled by the camera manufactures trying to tell you that you need as many megapixels as possible for the best picture quality. Take the time to read Ken Rockwell’s interpretation of The Megapixel Myth for a complete breakdown on this.  

After doing some price comparison I discovered Pro Photo Supply in NW Portland had the best deal. Their price even beat out Amazon!

The kit contained the following:

• The Nikon D40 DSLR Camera body
• 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens
• Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom Nikkor Lens (Telphoto Lens)
• Nikon School DVD "Understanding Digital Photography"
• Nikon School DVD "Fast, Fun and Easy"
• Nikon D40 camera bag (on backorder)
• Rechargeable battery and battery charger
• Nikon branded camera strap

In addition I bought the following accessories:

• Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash
• 2 Hoya 52mm UV (Ultra Violet) Super Multi Coated Glass Filters
• 2 Gig eFilm Secure Digital PRO Memory Card

Taking the plunge into DSLR from a simple point and shoot camera is overwhelming. There is so much to learn and it all seems quite complicated. Hopefully the DVD’s that came with the camera will help shed some light (no pun intended) on it all.

I’d like to start out by learning the basics of digital photography. Then once I’m comfortable with that I’ll move onto the features of the D40. Without knowing how to properly frame a shot, when to use the flash, or why to use one type of lens over another there is no point learning about the advanced features of the camera.

The good news is I am able to set the camera in "Auto" mode and use it to take shots. I’ve played around with that a bit already and the picture quality is amazing!

A quick search helped me find a (free!) handy plain english users guide for the Nikon D40. The Author, Ken Rockwell has a ton of great information on his website. I’ll be spending a lot of time there and you should too.

Since I finally have a camera that uses the SD card format I’d love to buy the Eye-Fi Wireless SD card. This sweet bite sized gadget will automatically upload the photos taken on it to any of the 17 supported online photo sharing webistes. No more need to connect the camera to the computer or mess with card readers. A neat concept that I’ll probably end up buying once the price goes down a bit.

In the meantime I’ll be (manually) uploading my photos to my Flickr account. Check there often for my latest photos.

Ultimately I’d like to do macro (close up) and night photography. It will happen. Someday.

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